{"id":5491,"date":"2015-08-31T15:07:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T22:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5491"},"modified":"2015-08-31T15:07:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-31T22:07:47","slug":"good-to-great-for-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/good-to-great-for-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Good to great for churches?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a sucker for contrarian insight and paradoxes; it seems Jim Collins, author of Good to Great<\/em>, is as well. The author advocates that the best leaders\u2014what he calls \u201cL-5 leaders\u201d\u2014have a duality. They are \u201cmodest and willful, humble and fearless;\u201d characteristics that don\u2019t seem to fit together (although Moses comes to mind.) [1]<\/a> Collins next observes the importance of getting the \u201cwho\u201d before the \u201cwhat\u201d. It\u2019s about having the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus, before we know where the bus is heading.[2]<\/a> Again, this seems contrarian: wouldn\u2019t common sense dictate we know where the bus is going so everyone gets on board with a common destination? Next, Collins represents leaders who face the brutal facts and lead with questions until clarity is gained.[3]<\/a> This approach is in stark contrast to superstar CEOs that are hired as saviors\u2014the best and the brightest\u2014who have all the answers.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a pastor of a small church that is going through a transformation; we\u2019re slowly and methodically, in Collins\u2019 words, \u201cmoving the flywheel.\u201d \u00a0Good to Great<\/em> might not provide me with a lot of theological guidance or ministry insights, but it does provide constructive feedback for the process of organizational change. This book is really a blessing for the thousands of pastors who are restructuring their congregations, bringing them through a time of significant transformation. Pastors don\u2019t get restructuring feedback, but the principles of this book are very encouraging; below are some examples.<\/p>\n

I started my current pastorate about three and half years ago. For the first two years I was consumed with separating the church from a K-12 school it had helped to start. The school had been its core ministry for three decades, but the relationship consumed the church, the tail was wagging the dog, and kept it from going from \u201cgood-to-great\u201d. To the shock of some who viewed the school as our core ministry (read business), we decided to fully part ways. To drop the school meant a radical shift in our direction. \u201cHow can we leave behind something that is so obviously good?\u201d When I read Collins study on Kimberly Clark and how several decades ago it had decided to sell off its\u2019 paper mills\u2014at that time nearly their entire business\u2014and go into consumer goods, many were shocked at the sale. \u00a0It did, however, give Kimberly Clark tremendous focus as it rebuilt itself into a great consumer paper products company, competing with Proctor & Gamble.<\/p>\n

Another good-to-great insight, that at first I found startling and eventually took solace in, was the need to have the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus: the \u201cwho\u201d comes before the \u201cwhat\u201d. In the context of a small church, any reduction in numbers of people is difficult to handle, but when leaders pull away it\u2019s especially challenging. Within the first year of our transformation, one Elder stepped away quietly: for a long time he wanted to start his own church, so his passion was elsewhere. I missed him and blessed him as he went. But at a critical time, during the separation from the school, another Elder left. His departure was public, painful, and somewhat humiliating. I had members challenging me that things must be wrong for such good folks to be leaving. Likewise, I had denominational leaders criticize the way in which we handled some of the issues. But these good men weren\u2019t the men who wanted to take this church forward. They had other plans and passions that took them away from where we would be going. I could have the most compelling vision for the church (the \u201cwhat\u201d) but it wouldn\u2019t have mattered\u2014their heart wasn\u2019t in it. They were the wrong \u201cwho\u201d for our \u201cwhat.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could cite other similarities between the book and our church\u2019s restructuring.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m both encouraged and saddened by what I read. Encouraged that there is \u201cchange process\u201d help for those like myself who are working with their church leaders doing the slow work of transforming heretofore plateaued or declining churches. On the other hand, I\u2019m deeply saddened that encouragement for being \u201cwillful,\u201d, or for \u201casking hard questions,\u201d or for \u201cleaving behind yesterday\u2019s success\u201d rarely comes from within the church\u2014it comes from outsiders. A pastor who is professionally willful and personally reserved might be the ideal catalyst for pushing a church forward\u2014but many in the church would still rather have a superstar pastor come in who seemingly by the sheer force of personality can catapault the church towards success. When will we ever learn?<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jim Collins,\u00a0Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap–and Others Don’t<\/em>\u00a0(New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001), 22.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Ibid. 41-42.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Ibid. 74-80.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a sucker for contrarian insight and paradoxes; it seems Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, is as well. The author advocates that the best leaders\u2014what he calls \u201cL-5 leaders\u201d\u2014have a duality. They are \u201cmodest and willful, humble and fearless;\u201d characteristics that don\u2019t seem to fit together (although Moses comes to mind.) [1] Collins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[267],"class_list":["post-5491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-collins","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5492,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491\/revisions\/5492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}